February 16, 2006
Three profs honored by meterological society
Robert A. Houze Jr., professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW, has won the Carl Gustaf Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the nation’s leading professional society for those in the atmospheric and related sciences. The medal is the highest honor the Society bestows upon an atmospheric scientist.
Houze earned the award for his “fundamental and enduring contributions toward the understanding of the broad spectrum of precipitation systems, their interactions with larger scale circulations, and for his insightful leadership of field programs.” The medal is named in honor of Carl-Gustaf Rossby, widely known in the meteorological community for his contributions to the basic understanding of the dynamics and thermodynamics of the atmosphere.
Houze has taught and conducted research at the UW for more than 30 years and has led and participated in numerous field projects related to understanding precipitation systems around the world. He is a long-standing member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration science team responsible for an innovative satellite measuring tropical precipitation. Most recently his resesearch into hurricanes included directing aircraft into several major storms, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The AMS is also honoring two other UW faculty members. Michael C. Gregg, professor of oceanography at the Applied Physics Laboratory, has won the 2006 Stommel Award “for outstanding and comprehensive measurements of turbulence and mixing in many oceanics environments, and particularly for establishing a quantitative relationship between pelagic mixing rates and the energy of internal waves.” The Stommel Research Award is granted to researchers in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of the dynamics and physics of the ocean.
Mark T. Stoelinga, research assistant professor in atmospheric sciences, has won a 2006 Editor’s Award from the AMS in recognition of his work as an associate editor of the Monthly Weather Review, one of 10 AMS scientific journals. The citation reads, “For consistently providing many in-depth and thorough reviews, and for providing special assistance to the editors on controversial manuscripts.”
